Grasping the nettle: five strategies for a pressing problem

Bags of coca in a market in Bolivia's capital, La Paz. The Bolivian government draws a line between coca for traditional, cultural uses and its conversion into cocaine. Photograph: David Hogsholt/Getty Images

There are potentially five main approaches to drugs and the law: prohibition; regulated sale; depenalisation; decriminalisation for personal use; and legalisation. No country has yet legalised all drugs, although degrees of prohibition vary. Some favour treating cannabis completely separately from other drugs.

Prohibition

This is the official UN position which operates in varying forms around the world. Its enforcement ranges from the death penalty in some countries to mild disapproval in others.

Legalisation

The current issue of the Economist argues for legalisation as the "least bad solution". It suggests "legalisation would not only drive away the gangsters, it would transform drugs from a law-and-order problem into a public health problem, which is how it ought to be treated". Under the Economist scenario - supported by many drug reform agencies and libertarian organisations - governments would tax and regulate the drug trade and use the funds raised and the billions saved on law enforcement to educate the public on the risk of drugs. Sale to minors would, like alcohol, be prohibited. Post-tax prices would be set at a level that would not neither encourage use nor leave the door open for black market trafficking. The advantage of this method would be the enormous savings to the criminal justice systems and the removal of the control of drugs from criminal networks. The argument is that there is no correlation between punitive drugs laws and addiction: "Harsh Sweden and more liberal Norway have precisely the same addiction rates."

Regulated sale

This operates in the coffee shops in the Netherlands. Cannabis can be legally sold but only in strict and regulated conditions and not to minors.

Depenalisation

This keeps drugs illegal and takes users through the criminal justice system but imposes no penalty.

Decriminalisation

Decriminalising for personal use can happen either by moving from criminal to civil sanctions, by lowering penalties or through a policy of tolerance. Variations on these options, according to the drug reform charity Transform, are in evidence across western Europe, South America, Russia, Australia, Canada, the US and elsewhere. Such decriminalisation is most commonly applied to cannabis, but in a number of places to all drugs. Portugal has the most lenient approach, with simple possession of drugs taken out of the criminal justice system. Spain, Italy and the other countries listed above have all looked at varying forms of decriminalisation.

Within the broad approach of prohibiting drug use, special cases are often make for individual drugs and initiatives:

Coca

Among the many speakers in Vienna this week will be President Evo Morales of Bolivia, who will be delivering his message on coca. His government's policy is "coca yes, cocaine no" which seeks to distinguish between coca, a plant used for centuries by indigenous people in the Andean region of South America, for "health, religious and cultural purposes", and cocaine, "an illicit drug". The argument in coca-growing countries has been the "war on drugs" failed to understand the cultural acceptance of coca and that the aggressive, US-led eradication approach has driven otherwise law-abiding farmers into the hands of narcotraffickers. Under the Morales approach, traditional use and cultivation of coca would be permitted while attempts to convert it into cocaine would be resisted. So far this strategy has been resisted by the US and is in opposition to the existing UN strategy.

Medical marijuana

California has led the way in the legalisation of marijuana for medical treatment. The federal government is still opposed. Canada, Switzerland and the Netherlands have also recognised medical use of marijuana and it is being trialled in the UK on hundreds of patients. Prohibitionists argue that this is legalisation by the back door.

Harm reduction

This does not legalise drugs as such but seeks to deal with addicts via needle-exchange programmes or drug substitution, such as methadone for heroin. The aim behind this is to cut down the risk of HIV infection, which is being spread at epidemic rates in countries such as Russia. This is opposed by some hardline countries on the grounds that it could be seen to condone drug use.